Livestream: Sneak Peek at Migration Stories with Lisa Maguire

Thank you, Jim the Historian, Lisa Rex, Charles Herzer, Gwendolyn Copeland, Gadsby Family History, Kyla Bayang, Linda Teather, Jude Rhodes, THOUGHTS & MUSINGS, Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA, Jill Swenson, and so many more of you for joining Lisa Maguire, and me today. It’s great to have you part of the conversation.I can’t tell you how much it means to me here on the American Pacific coast to see all of you joining from Australia, New Zealand, and across the American states and provinces. Your thoughts, comments, and encouragement are the glue that holds this community together. The little ❤️s you drop keep us motivated and give this post a little more visibility. Feel free to create clips from this post to share with your friends.Projectkin programming is offered free thanks to the kind support of our generous patrons around 🌏 the 🌍 world 🌎.Migration Stories Series Coming in SeptemberIt was just a little over two weeks ago that we wrapped up the Stories250 series with an epic online party on July 9th. The series made me realize that this theme-based approach could go along way toward motivating individuals to explore their family stories.The notion of Migration Stories has been floating around for a while since it’s a variation on the origin stories every family tells themselves. “Mom, where are we from?” The topic also speaks to the heart of the cultures each family struggles to pass down through stories. Lisa Maguire of Ancestory joined me back in May to discuss the topic in the context of her earlier discussion of her talk about Micro History for Projectkin, “Family History Asks Large Questions in Small Places,” in August 2025.: The topic actually first came up in March when Jennifer Jones and I started playing with the idea soon after RootsTech: Completing our quartet of planners is Jude Rhodes of Yorkshire Family History. Together we’re working through subtle mechanics for the program to ensure that we all get the most out of it. Have some ideas, suggestions, or feedback? We’d love to hear it. Drop me a message, and I’ll bring it up:Near term, my plan is to release a post describing the program by the end of July and have the program launch in September with a showcase on the first of our migration paths. Migration PathsWe’ve realized that every migration includes a point of origin, a destination, and a time window. As we discussed it further, the themes, events, and challenges became obvious as topics worth exploring as well. This is why I’ve called this a series-of-series because each migration path is itself so big. To make that work, we’ve come up with the idea of a migration “path pilot.” We’ll have more detail on the requirements and responsibilities of a path pilot, but fundamentally, it’ll be someone who's fully invested in the story and can guide and encourage others exploring the same path. Want to be a “Path Pilot?”Does that already sound interesting? I’d love to hear from you now. The insight and perspective of community members has already greatly informed the planning for all of this. Again, drop me a private message, or add a public comment below.Migration MysteriesFinally, in the recording you’ll hear about this little challenge to get us all started. Take a moment and ask yourself about an ancestor you can think of in your family tree where you don’t know where they came from. An ancestor, for example, documented in Boston, but you have no idea how or when they arrived. Did you write a post, article, or public social media post about that? Send it to me before next week, Sunday, August 2nd, and I’ll add it to our shared map at Projectkin.org/migration-mystery. This map is live now in an interactive whiteboard from Canva. Each submitted story becomes an embed in the map. I’ll have more detail about navigating such maps in the coming weeks and months as this program gets going. Thank you all for your encouragement and support and my deepest gratitude to Lisa Maguire, Jennifer Jones, and Jude Rhodes for their support in all of this. We are all fellow travelers. Get full access to Projectkin at projectkin.substack.com/subscribe